[The Vranje girls] joined hands in the circle dance (see "Background" below). Fatiše is a form of dialect for the literary verb "hvatiti se," which is why it can't be found in dictionaries.

SOURCE:

Dick Oakes learned this dance from Anatol Joukowsky who introduced it to folk dancers on the West Coast of the United States at the Santa Barbara Folk Dance Conference in 1963. This dance description is based on original notes by Ruth Ruling. Dick Crum also introduced a similar dance on the East Coast in about 1967.

BACKGROUND:

The dance was originally a women's dance. It comes from the South Serbian town of Vranje, which has a fine Turkish bridge and Turkish baths dating from the 17th century. The song on the recommended recording tells about young women from Vranje who dance the kolo, the traditional Serbian dance, around the village fountain and that all recognize that Taša is the prettiest one. The dance is also known as "Kolo iz Vranje" and "Vranjsko djevojačko kolo." Mr. Joukowsky described this dance (Kolo iz Vranje) on pages 49-50 in his book The Teaching of Ethnic Dance. Mr. "J" was ballet master at the Belgrade Opera in the 1930s and undoubtedly had to choreograph this dance several times, which may explain the differences between the "character dance" form described here and that taught to Mr. Crum in 1952 by the local Vranje amateur folk dance group.

According to Mr. Crum, in the Serbian language it is permissible to put predicate before subject, hence the predicate "fatiše kolo" ("joined [hands] in the kolo") comes before the subject ("vranjske devojke" - "the Vranje girls"). "Fatiše kolo" is therefore actually not a kolo called "Fatiše." Rather, the title should really be the entire first line of the song by Petar Konjović -- "Fatiše kolo vranjske devojke" -- from the musical play "Koštana" (KOH-shtah-nah) by Borisav Stanković, arguably the most beloved stage work Serbia ever produced. In the score, it is referred to as "velika čočečka igra" ("grand čoček"). Two other songs in the "opera" are Stojanke and Puče puše.